Summary
Pastor Safrit walks through John 19:23-27, focusing on Jesus' compassionate words to his mother from the cross. He emphasizes the importance of honoring and supporting family, especially during times of suffering, and encourages the congregation to show love and attention to loved ones in need. The sermon highlights practical ways to honor parents and the significance of community in caring for one another, reminding listeners that love should prevail even amidst personal pain.
Welcome and Introduction
Thank you for listening to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Sermon Audio. For more information, please visit our website, pgbcronda.com, or visit on all social media platforms. We'll be in John chapter 19 this morning. John chapter 19, verse 23 to 27, as we continue our series on the final words, the sayings of the Savior.
We've spent the last five weeks in this study, and we've got one more week after this.
And as I think through where I'm going to be at, where I preach, where we're going to be studying, I don't always look at the holidays on the calendar. I don't always try to make a Mother's Day message, work on Mother's Day.
But as I was looking through the final seven sayings of Jesus, one of those sayings was to his mother.
And so I felt that it would be appropriate to preach this sermon today on, woman, here's your son and here is your mother that Jesus gave on the cross.
As we've looked at the last couple of weeks, I'm going to pull out a couple of final last sayings of some popular people. The last words of Frank Sinatra, the famous singer, most people know him, is this, I'm losing. I'm losing. That's what his final words were. Harriet Tubman was dying in 1913.
She gathered her family around and they sang together. And some have said that her last words were, swing low, sweet chariot.
And there was an exchange of words after the beautiful musical moment. But her actual last words were, give my love to the churches. Tell the women to stand firm. I go to prepare a place for you. I thought that was a very fitting statement from Harriet. And then William Henry Seward.
This was the U.S. Secretary of State and the architect of the Alaska Purchase. One of the largest purchases that America made.
And someone asked him if he had any final words to say. And his final words were this. Nothing only but love one another.
So he is quoting Jesus there in loving one another and how we should respond to that.
And so if you have your Bibles and you've had time to turn there, we'll be in John chapter 19, verses 22 to 27. We'll stand out of honor of God's word and we'll read these couple of verses and then jump into the message this morning.
The Bible says that when the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts. A part for each soldier. They also took his tunic, which was seamless,
woven in one piece from the top. And so they said to one another, let's not tear this, but let's cast lots for it to see who gets it. And this happened that scripture might be fulfilled that was said, they divided my clothes among themselves and they cast lots for my clothing.
Mary at the Cross
And this is what the soldiers did. As we continue on in verse 25, standing by the cross of Jesus, wore his mother. His mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas,
Mary Magdalene. And when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, woman, this is your son. And he said unto his disciple, here is your mother. And from that hour, the disciples took her into his own home. Lord, we love you.
We thank you for what you've done. We thank you for the encouragement that you gave us here on the cross to honor our mother and to care for our mother. And I pray this morning as we look through this text that you'll give us encouragement this morning to honor you in everything we do.
Lord, I love you and we thank you for what you've done.
In your name we pray. Amen. If you look sequentially from most scholars, most scholars say that this would have been the third response that Jesus gave, the third statement on the cross. We're moving that around a little bit. And it was, for what we're looking at, the sixth cry from the cross. And it was a cry of compassion.
It was a cry of love for his family. And in particular, it was a cry of honor to his mother.
As I was thinking through this and as I was thinking through what Jesus would have felt here and how his mother would have felt, the thought came to me that when others in our family suffer,
even though you may be hurting and suffering as well, take time to love your family. Take time to show the heart of God,
God's compassion, God's tenderness, God's love, God's care, God's concern for others in everything we do.
You see, your pain, as well as everyone else's pain, is there for a reason.
It's there for a purpose. And ultimately, the statement I have opened up with is, when your family suffers, take time to love.
And we're going to look at how we can love today, how we can show love in these areas.
Because the thing, and even I said this morning in Sunday school as I was teaching, is family is sometimes the hardest to love, the hardest to show the gospel to, the hardest to show the love of Jesus to, because they're oftentimes the closest to us.
And so how do we share the gospel? How do we show love to a family member that's hurting? How do we show love to a family, maybe a family member who's living in sin, maybe someone who is doing wrong with their life? How do we show love and compassion to them,
but yet not compromise our moral standing and our moral ground of what God has laid on our heart? And so what do we do when those we love suffer? We'll jump right into the message. In verse 25,
we see what did Mary do when Jesus, her only son, her, her, not her only son, her son, who she loved, and I'm sure she loved all of her, her children, but she stayed in contact with him.
And when we are around others that are hurting that we love, we should stay in contact with them.
Verse 25, the Bible says, standing near the cross where Jesus's mother and sister and Mary's sister and Mary the Magdalene as well. As I was thinking of that thought of Mary standing near the cross.
I want you to imagine in your heart and in your mind right now as Jesus is hanging on that cross.
Jesus is suffering. He has been beat. He was, the Bible says, even unrecognizable to man, that he would not have even been recognized as a human being because of how tattered and torn and beat he was. Jesus, keep me near the cross.
Fanny Crosby wrote a song, Jesus, keep me near the cross. There a precious fountain, free to all a healing stream, flows from Calvary's mountain. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find, rest beyond the river. Jesus, keep me near the cross.
We're going to go through times of heartache. We're going to go through times of suffering. And as we learn here from Mary, and as we learn here from others, they knew that the closer they got to Jesus, they knew the closer they got to the cross, the more comfort and healing they were going
to receive. And when those near to us suffer, we have an obligation to stand by them. We have an obligation to try to help them by staying in contact with them. Luke chapter 2, verse 34 and 35,
when Jesus was born and they took Jesus to the temple to be blessed, the Bible says in Luke 2, verse 34, then Simeon blessed them.
And he told his mother Mary, Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel
and to be a sign that you will be opposed. And a sword will pierce your own soul and the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. See, Mary knew from the beginning. She knew from the moment that Jesus was born.
She knew from even this moment when she had this encounter with Simeon that Jesus' life was going to cause division. Jesus' life was going to be a radical life, a radical change, a radical moment in history to where even today our calendar system is marked around Jesus' birth.
He split time in half when his birth came into existence.
And Mary knew that this, through this prophecy, that he was going to cause the rise and the fall of many and that people would be opposed to him.
And he went even further to say there was going to be a sword that was going to pierce her own soul. You see, she knew the gravity of raising Jesus.
She knew the gravity of having God's son in her life. And just as Mary knew that gravity church this morning, we should know the gravity as well.
Yes, we have freedom in America. Yes, we have the freedom to worship and the freedom to love. But we have to understand that people all across the world are suffering and being persecuted for their faith.
And we should be encouraged to stay in contact with them. You see, love shows up when a loved one is suffering.
Supporting Loved Ones in Pain
When a loved one is hurting, when a loved one is suffering, that's when we show up. That's when we say, hey, can I pray for you? Can I just be there?
Can I put my arm of comfort around you? Can I just wrap you up and give you just a little bit of love today? I may not be here all the time, but I can be here in this moment. Love shows up when a loved one is suffering.
Not only did Mary stay in contact with them, but we see what Jesus said in response to Mary being there. We see that we should support them the best way we can. Verse 26, we see in the first part of this, where Jesus gave a response back to his mother.
Last couple weeks, he forgave the soldiers. He told the criminal on the cross that he would be with them in paradise.
He entrusted his spirit to the Lord. He said, God, why did you forsake me? He said, God, I'm thirsty to the crowd. And now at this moment, he sees his mother there. As that video played, as we began,
some of you were thinking back of those nights where your mother was there with you. Some of you, as a mother, was thinking about the times where you spent all night up with your son and all night with your daughter.
And you related to that. And I can imagine Mary standing there and Mary thinking of those times with Jesus, thinking of those times where they spent time together and had some intimate conversations. And Jesus reminiscing back on that times with his mother as well.
Where his mother came and visited him while he was preaching. And his mother was there and he fed the 5,000 and his mother was there.
And the joy and the honor that his mother would have had to look and say, that's my son. I had a small part in that.
But yet at this moment, he looks and he sees his mother looking at him in this naked position, beaten, tormented, suffering. And yet instead of thinking of himself,
in this excruciating pain, he was not focused on himself. He was focused on someone else's pain. He said, I'm suffering and I'm hurting.
But it's not about me right now. It's about others. We talked about that a couple weeks ago. It's about other people around us. And he paid attention to the suffering that was around him.
He understood that his mom was in this emotional pain of losing her son, her firstborn. And she was going to suffer. She was going to have loss as well. Love pays attention. You see, the key to paying attention is getting over your grief and refocusing your life and refocusing where you're at.
Attention is one of the greatest gifts that we can give anyone.
You see, we have things specifically in our pockets right now. A cell phone that gathers most of our attention.
And my wife has to tell me often, Hey, James, at the dinner table, remember, we're not going to have our phone out. I'm like, oh, yeah, I got to remember that. Someone will call me. It's dinner time.
How about this? It's really important. I should pick up. They can wait till after dinner. And it's good to have people in our life that help us refocus our attention.
Because so often, instead of me paying attention to my kids at that dinner time, and we try almost every night to have dinner together and sit at the table and talk about school and talk about what's going on in life.
It's very easy for me to sort of be detached and think about the other things in life.
And so it's a small moment of time where we can give someone attention.
You've had this conversation with someone before. I know you have because I have. Where you're talking there with them. And as you're talking with them, they look at their phone about 14 times.
And they look over and maybe they're checking their watch or they're fiddling with some papers on the desk. And all of a sudden, you're getting maybe this important time. And they're just sort of just looking over and trying to tell. And you realize their attention is not even in the room.
And you're like, you know, listen, I'll just come back when you can give me five minutes. You see, Jesus in this moment, he understood that in this moment, I need to give my mom a little attention.
I'm going to block everything out. I'm going to block out the soldiers tearing up my clothes and selling my clothes and casting lots on them.
I'm going to block out all the pain that's in my life. And I'm going to give a little bit of attention to my mom in this situation. You see, Jesus didn't take away his mom's suffering. He didn't take away the pain of his mother. He could have.
He could have said, I'm done with this. Send down the legion of angels. I'm going to go and I'm going to take care of my mom. But what he did instead, he simply did what he could do in that situation. And in that situation, he honored his mother.
Exodus 20, verse 12. We know this is very common. It's a time of the Ten Commandments where it says, honor your father and mother.
That you may have a long life in the land and the Lord your God is giving you. You see, we understand that God will give us a long life in this land if we simply honor our parents.
Ways to Honor Your Parents
And so in this portion, I want to give maybe five. And this could be to our younger kids in here. It could be to you as an older adult that still has your parents alive. Five ways to honor your parents as long as they're alive.
You may still have a mom or a dad. Thankfully, and by God's blessing, me and my wife, we still have both of our mother and our fathers around. Some of us in this room are not as fortunate. And I understand that.
And then we often talk about the moment where we're going to have to bury our mom and dad. It's hard. It's difficult.
We don't want to think about it. We don't want to talk about it. But part of life is death. And we understand that. But while our parents are here, how can we honor them? The first one is this.
It's very simple. Tell your parents that you love them.
Simply make a statement and tell your mom and dad that you love them. And be there and use those words. I've said this before. I think I've said it before here. But it wasn't until I was in college.
I knew my mom and dad loved me. I knew my mom and dad were there for me. They took care of me. They provided some of my bills as Logan was talking about. And even in college, they helped me with insurance and other things.
But it wasn't until college did I ever hear my dad tell me that he loved me. And I was the one that had to initiate it. I knew my dad loved me. I knew my dad cared about me. It just wasn't part of his vernacular. It wasn't part of his language. Okay?
We're all raised and we're mimatic by creatures and by nature. But my dad never said those words.
Where I was at college, love was, I mean, the pastor, he may have said it once. He said it a hundred times that day. I love you, brother. I love you. I love you. It was what he had. He just always said it.
And I got to thinking, how often do I even say that word?
And so I made a point from that day on, every time I get on the phone with my mom or my dad, and I go to hang up, I'm going to say, Mom, I love you. Dad, I love you.
And the first couple times it was a little weird because we'd go to hang up. I'd go, Dad, love you. What? I love you too, son. And hang up.
But now over the years, they're telling me they love me before they hang up now.
It's a culture that sometimes has to change where we just simply speak the words, I love you. And telling them that while they're here.
Look at the next one. Make a phone call. It's simple. Pick up the phone. Give them a call. Hey, I want to give you a call. I want to talk to you. How's your day? How are things going?
Another really simple, easy way, send an email or a text. Right? We've got these phones around us. We've got computers and laptops and the availability to keep in contact with everyone that we can imagine. And oftentimes, it's just sending a message of an email or a text.
Maybe, number four, you just write a letter. You pull out an old pen and paper. You get out an old stamp. Anybody know what a stamp is? An envelope. I know we don't use that much anymore.
But you write it down. You put it in there. And you lick the envelope. You hope you don't cut your tongue. And you put the stamp on there. And you put it in what's called a mailbox. Not an email inbox. But a mailbox.
And you put the flag up. And you let the mailman come. And you mail them a letter.
Maybe you can't just do the next one where it's make a visit. Maybe you're just simply able to write a letter. But if it's able, make a visit. And spend time with those you love.
This is five simple ways. It's not an exhaustive list. It's not a list that you're going to say, Well, Pastor James, you forgot about those 17 other things. I probably did. I just wrote down five very easy ways that we can make a difference by simply honoring our parents while they're alive.
Helping Those Who Suffer
So we see that Mary stayed in contact with Jesus.
We see that Jesus saw his mother and he supported her the best he could. But then in verse 26 and 27, we see seek ways to help those who suffer. You see, because there's a third character in this story that oftentimes gets overlooked. John was here with Jesus' mother.
And in this moment, Jesus gave an instruction to his mother, but also to this disciple.
And he said, This is your mother. I am giving you the right to care for my mom because you're my friend. I love that all throughout John, John writes and he says, The disciple whom Jesus loved.
Because Jesus cared for all, but he had a special relationship with John. And when John was there, when John was with Mary, when John was with Jesus there at the cross, Jesus looked and he said,
John, I know I'm putting a lot on you. I know there's a lot that you can do in ministry. You got a heart for people. You got a, you're always with me. You're there. You're at my bosom. You care for me.
But I'm going to ask you to postpone your ministry for a little while. And to take care of my mother. You see, this was an amazingly huge responsibility. He knew that she was hurting and he knew that he needed help. And so he sent John this command. John completely and obediently,
and the Bible says immediately accepted the command of Jesus. How often do we not accept the command of Jesus?
Or I'll say it like this, how often does it take us weeks or months or even years of praying about, are we going to listen to what Jesus wants us to do? To where John, when he received this command,
he said, the Bible says that he immediately left from there and took her into his home.
He took her into that home this hour. Or tradition holds it like this, that John never left Jerusalem. And he entered into his wider ministry. He never entered into that ministry until Mary died. He kept the command of Jesus until the end. He went on to do amazing, wonderful things for Christ.
He went on to write the gospel of John. He went on to write three epistles, first and second, third John. But then he had the honor of writing the book of Revelation.
Where Jesus brought him into heaven and said, I'm going to give you a glimpse here on earth of what heaven's going to be like. There's only one other apostle that we know of that got to see a glimpse of heaven, and that was Paul.
John's Commitment to Jesus
But he wrote the book of Revelation as his crowning event in his life. But of all that he did,
this one very act of obeying the Lord's request at the Lord's final moment of life was more important to him than all the other things he did.
You see, unlike the other apostles, who James, who got to be the pastor of Jerusalem church, who Peter, who got to go out and sort of be the teaching apostle to all the other churches, who Paul, who got to see thousands of churches get started,
John, you could sort of look back and say, he could have been envious.
He could have said, why can't I go out and preach, and why can't I go out and minister to those other ones and do these miracles and do these wonderful things?
He could have gotten that moment in his life, but instead he said the direct obedience, this request from the Lord, is no greater than what they're doing.
And because he loved Jesus and Jesus loved him in this manner, there's no doubt in my mind the reason that Jesus gave John this amazing work.
He would be the last person alive at one point who would have heard Jesus. All the other apostles and all the other disciples would have died and there would have only been one disciple of Jesus remaining. And he was banished onto an island.
They had tried to kill him. They tried bullying him alive. And he said, I'm just going to continue serving Jesus. And they said, we're just going to banish you until you die. Because Jesus knew that he could trust him.
When Jesus looks at you and me, does he know he can trust you? Does he know that if he tells you there's a person across the street that needs Jesus, that you're going to go and listen and tell that person about Jesus?
Does he know that if he tells you, hey, there's someone hurting and you need to go encourage them or send them a text message, does he know he can trust you?
Or are you going to be one that just falls away? John trusted and obeyed Jesus.
As I've said it before, it's one of my favorite poems of all time. The poet wrote this as, almost like they were coming from the words of Jesus. I have no hands, but your hands to do my work today. I have no feet, but your feet to lead men in their way.
I have no tongue, but your tongue to tell them how I died. And I have no help, but your help to bring men by my side.
As Terry comes and plays, as we conclude the message, I want you to ask yourself this morning, is that your response?
Jesus, the only hands you have are my hands and I'm going to do everything I can to serve you. The only feet that you have are my feet and I'm going to do everything I can. The only tongue you have, the only voice box you have is my voice.
And so I'm going to do everything I can through my messages, through my words, through my text messages, through my actions, to serve you.
Or are you here today and say, well, someone else will do it. There's a lot of people in here.
There's a lot of people to do some things that I couldn't do and it's okay if they do it instead of me. Or are we so devoted to what Jesus has done that if Jesus were to look off the cross, he would say, there's another John.
There's another John that I can trust my mom to.
Because as we've all shared, our mothers are probably the most important person to us outside of our spouse. But would Jesus have that response to us?
You see, if you're a younger adult in this church today, it's your responsibility to care for the older adults in the church. We have a responsibility for the younger to care for the older, but the older adults, you don't get out of this. You're called to mentor the younger adults.
The Bible says that the older women should teach the younger women and the older men should teach the younger men. And we've got to have this back and forth unity among each other where we're caring for one another. Father, you were never meant to carry your pain alone.
God intentionally put us in communities because he knew that communities was the only way to love and care for one another.
Jesus as the Answer to Needs
And the answer for every single one of our needs this morning, I don't care what it is. I don't care if it's addiction. I don't care if it's sin. I don't care if it's loneliness. I don't care if it's anxiety. I don't care what the problem is this morning, church.
Every single one of our needs can be met at the foot of the cross.
And the closer we get to the cross, as we're learning on Wednesday night with our youth, the closer we get to Christ, the more repulsive sin looks to us. And we've got to get to the point where everything we do is centered and focused on Jesus and centered and focused on the cross
because that is our true source of answer for everything. That we do.
Maybe you're here today and you're thinking, you know, I've never even accepted Jesus like I've talked about today.
I don't know what this suffering thing's about. I suffer in the world, but I'm suffering from a greater thought or a greater situation, which is sin and death and hell. Jesus is there with arms open wide saying, come unto me. Maybe you're here today and you just have neglected some things.
Maybe you've neglected your family. Maybe you've neglected some care and support and others have suffered and you've only been focusing on self. Our invitation is the time of dealing with some of those things, whether it's at your seat or at the altar. Whatever the Lord's speaking to your heart, do business today.
Let's stand and pray. Lord, we love you. We thank you for what you've done. Lord, I'm thankful that you gave us this challenge today. Lord, to think of our moms as you did. How often am I so self-focused that I don't take time to think of others.
Lord, you were beaten and tormented and the pain was unbearable. Most men would have died before they even got to the cross.
And yet you were on the cross and you had others on your mind. And so God, I pray that you help us this morning and to focus on you, to focus on how we can help others.
Lord, if there's one here that doesn't know you, let them come to know you today. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.
Thank you again for taking your time to listen to the sermon audio of Pleasant Grove. Please subscribe to get our latest sermons each week. Thank you. Thank you.
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